Juuust kidding. But, since we are all suffering a 24 hour dearth of truthiness -- and in case you would like to know how SOPA/PIPA could affect 31337 blog hounds and conscientious citizens like yourself - find resources you might need during the blackout, after the jump. More >>

Watching Bob Costas interrogate the unseen, unrepentant Penn State shower jockey Jerry Sandusky on NBC's Rock Center Monday night -- and then in replay every hour since -- was a worthwhile reminder of how good Costas is when he's allowed to be. He drilled Sandusky, pardon the expresh, for quibbling about his inappropriate behavior with those kids in the Penn State locker room.

Horseplay? Towel snapping? To quote Jon Stewart's reaction to Sandusky's responses in the interview, "Are you fucking kidding us?"

Costas, with only 15 minutes to prep for the live, on-air phone chat -- he thought he was going to talk to Sandusky's attorney, who did a last-minute hand-off to Sandusky -- was tough and thorough. "Are you denying that you had any inappropriate sexual contact with any of these underage boys?" Costas asked. "How could somebody think they saw something as extreme and shocking as that when it hadn't occurred, and what would possibly be their motivation to fabricate it? ... It seems that if all of these accusations are false, you are the unluckiest and most persecuted man that any of us has ever heard about."More >>

Cindy Funk via Flickr

...but for how long?

​Driving through Arkansas not long ago, I turned on the radio and scanned for local stations talking about anything but rightwing politics or Jesus. It was early on a Saturday morning and I stopped on a show called "The Trading Post." In a drawl you could drizzle on a waffle, host Sid King was taking calls from listeners who wanted to buy or sell just about any ol' thing. Used mattresses, farm equipment, pygmy goats, fresh eggs, old-fashioned wringer washing machines, the kind you keep on a back porch next to the rocking chair, the banjo and the still. Somebody called in wanting a bird dog. Another had a cabin up in the woods for rent - no utilities, but it was only $125 a month, within the budget of the frugal serial killer.

It was an aural inventory of stuff bought and traded in rural America. To make deals, you called the seller or buyer directly. Sid gave out phone numbers over the air, using only the last four digits in this one-prefix part of the Ozarks. Everybody seemed to know each other on "The Trading Post" and I imagined them ringing up from the feed store or down to the bus station. I listened and grinned. It was like a radio wayback machine had taken me to Mayberry circa 1962.

In a few years, radio like this might be gone forever and that's a shame. It's too local, too small-town. Except for the guy who sells his rusted combine for a few dollars, nobody makes money off of it.

In case you haven't noticed, local radio is just about kaput everywhere, but especially in small towns. To get a taste of what rural radio used to sound like, you have to go see Greater Tuna, where actors Joe Sears and Jaston Williams include scenes in their play set in 275-watt station West Texas station WKKK, "serving the Greater Tuna area." It couldn't be more local, with host Arles Struvie reporting headlines from the news desk: "Nuclear accident imperils millions ... Texas not included." End of story.

More >>

Alexander Flores

​Today, there's a flurry of Steve Jobs-related Tweets and news posts and mournful consumer images. For some it's quickly reaching the point of saturation, while others are posting tributes on the steps of Apple stores around the world (our sister paper is talking the Foxconn factory suicides in a must-read post).

While I got a chance to post my favorite ad last night amidst the onslaught of RIP tweets, other Mixmaster contributors affected by the Apple life wanted the opportunity to share as well.

Their thoughts after the jump:

More >>

Above, one of the most innovative commercials to grace the small screen -- and, what is possibly our favorite commercial ever.

It's especially appropriate, since he gave us products that quite literally changed our lives. The mastermind behind Apple will be remembered by generations for his innovation and inspiration.

Rest in peace, Steve Jobs.

​I subscribe to lots of blogs but read very few on a regular basis. Except PostSecret, the blog featuring people's deepest secrets, written on postcards -- many works of art -- and submitted anonymously. Every Sunday, founder Frank Warren posts 20 secrets, chosen from among the thousand or so he receives each week. Sunday Secrets is a highlight of my week.

Love and hate and sex and dishonesty and regrets and self-loathing and yearnings and questionable personal habits and all manner of human failings and foibles come spilling out. The blog is equal parts entertaining and shocking, and it's reassuring to realize that even your darkest secrets are very likely shared by others. (A lot of people pee in the shower, Warren reports. Just so you know.)

"When you really feel that somebody else shares your burden, it can't help but make that load a little bit lighter," Warren says.

Now he has launched a PostSecret app, currently available for the iPhone, with an Android version to come later this year. Users can upload a photo and secret, geotagged if they like. Others can comment on it. "You can write a reply that is connected to that secret forever," Warren says. (There is a system whereby secrets and comments can be flagged for review.)

More >>

​"Life begins here." That's the current advertising slogan for a famous product many of us reach for every day. Can you guess which one? Take 10 seconds. Ready, go.

Time's up. It's Coca Cola, the No. 1 soft drink in the world. Tens of millions were spent with competing ad agencies around the world (Coca-Cola uses many in its worldwide marketing campaigns) to come up with a winning ad tagline and all they could manage was "Life begins here." Bad slogan for a caffeinated beverage. Good slogan for an Ob/Gyn offering fertilization treatments.

If I hadn't looked it up, I couldn't have told you what the current ad line is for Coke. The last great Coca-Cola TV ad I remember was "It's the real thing." Snappy. Had a cute tune they sang on the commercials. In 1969. Since then Coke has had a long run of insipid, unmemorable slogans. Among them: "America's Real Choice" (1985); "Can't Beat the Feeling" (1989); "Life tastes good" (2001); and last year's winner, "Twist the Cap to Refreshment." The cans must've felt left out with that one.

Along the way, the well-compensated geniuses charged with shaping Coke's marketing push also created a couple of one-word sales pitches. In 2000 it was "Enjoy." Bold new idea there. Sort of a flippant blow-off really. Here's some chemicals and caramel coloring in a can. Enjoy.

In 2003 it was "Real," a slimmed-down throwback to the 1969 slogan but without the catchy song. Just "Real," as if that showed Pepsi and RC who's boss.

Ad slogans are tending toward the cryptic these days. Many of them make no sense, just random pairs of words linked together by the desperation of latter-day Don Drapers. For the Lexus Hybrid: "Engineer Amazing." Amazing what? Amazing-ness? Or maybe "amazement"? "Engineer Amazing" sounds like a pidgin English description of a guy at a drafting table.

Grammar be damned in today's ad world. Now in its TV commercials AT&T orders consumers to "Rethink possible." Not "what's possible" or "possibilities." Just the meaning-free "Rethink possible."

More >>

Jerry Haynes has died at the age of 84. Rest in peace, Mr. Peppermint.

​Some customers might get a bit of a surprise if they decide to ring up "Ticketmaster" for tickets to The Canadian Tenors, Chicago and Riverdance concerts with the Dallas Pops Orchestra.

Wait, let's clarify. They might be surprised if they use the number in the ad provided on Page 3 of the Guide in today's Dallas Morning News.

If one dials the number provided -- that would be 888-745-3000 -- one hears not "Thank you for calling Ticketmaster," because that's not Ticketmaster's number. Ticketmaster's number is 1-800-745-3000.

Instead, customers have been getting an automated response meant to inspire a much different sort of "high note."

Go ahead, jump and find out. You know you want to, hot stuff.

More >>

​Oh, no, not that again. But there she is, actress Michelle Williams on the cover of the October Vogue, trussed into a white gown and done up as Marilyn Monroe for an Annie Leibovitz photo shoot.

Williams, from Dawson's Creek to now, is a good little actress. But dressing her up as Marilyn and slapping her on a photo layout in poses like a pouty Marilyn manqué? It's been done, and better, a thousand times. And by actresses and models with much better bodies ... of work.

Madonna did it for the 1985 "Material Girl" video, Vanity Fair and too many photo spreads to count. Britney Spears did it for Esquire. Anna Nicole Smith, Scarlett Johannson, Paris Hilton, Portia DiRossi, Catherine Hicks, Poppy Montgomery, Amanda Holden, Amanda Lepore, Ashley Judd, Lisa Marie Presley, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, Kim Basinger, Pamela Anderson, Kim Kardashian, RuPaul, Rudi Giuliani (!), every woman who ever lived in the Playboy Mansion -- they've all succumbed to the white-dress-white-hair-red-lipstick pose as Marilyn. (If you want to do it, here's a step-by-step guide.)

More >>